An anticipated showdown with Cho "Maru" Seong Ju, widely regarded as the second-best player currently competing in StarCraft II, never materialized, as sOs eliminated him 3-0 in the first round of the playoffs. However, Stats then ended sOs' run with a sweep in the semifinals, setting up the showdown with Serral.

Serral entered BlizzCon with 14,090 WCS points, more than four times the amount of his closest competitor in his region, Tobias "ShoWTimE" Sieber, who had 3,270. ShoWTimE failed to make it out of the group stage, beating Dark 2-0 only to fail to win another game, losing 2-0 to Stats and then 2-0 in a decider rematch against Dark.